


March Madness

by JuniorWoofles



Series: MCU Mix Bag [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Family Feels, Ficlet Collection, First Meetings, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Multiamory March, Parent Tony Stark, Polyamory, Pre-Relationship, Protective Tony Stark, Superfamily, Team as Family, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-25 14:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13836972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuniorWoofles/pseuds/JuniorWoofles
Summary: A ficlet collection for Multiamory March, featuring various MCU ships





	1. Bruce/Nat/Wanda: Monsters

Sometimes they feel like monsters. Sometimes they feel like they don’t belong in the world. Sometimes they feel like the whole world hates them. Sometimes they forget that it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of them, so long as they’re safe and together. Sometimes they just want to hide away from the world, lock themselves in the Tower and leave their worries outside. Sometimes they feel like the world doesn’t want them to be. Sometimes they have their breakdowns in turns. Sometimes it’s a couple of them, or all of them at once, that feel like the world is against them. Sometimes they can hide it from the others. But they can never hide it from each other.

They have their good days and their bad days. They get used to knowing what the signs are to watch out for, they learn how to take care of each other and how to make each other feel better when it’s an off day. They know how to cheer each other up and make them feel like there’s someone in the world who will love them unconditionally, no matter how much of monster they may feel like.

When it’s Bruce that’s out of sorts they stay in. The girls will sit on either side of him, wrapped in big, oversized blankets and orchestral music playing softly in the background. They’ll sit with peppermint hot chocolates and books and just relax. Wanda will be tucked under Bruce’s arm, occasionally peeking at the scientific tome in his hands instead of the novel in hers and she’ll feel safe like that, knowing that he could never hurt her. Natasha lounges more casually, one hand carding through Bruce’s curls and the other propping her book up, her legs thrown over his lap. She likes having her own space whilst invading his; knowing that he’s the centre of the universe.

When it’s Natasha’s turn to feel hurt she’s usually quite good at hiding it. Usually only Clint will be the only other person to notice, but he knows to give her the space she needs. Bruce and Wanda know better than that. They know that Natasha likes to be tracked down, that it makes her feel wanted, that it makes her feel needed. They usually find her exhausting herself in some way; mentally taxing herself over worries or stress, or physically pushing too hard in the gym. All they have to do is find where she’s hidden herself and convince her to come home with them. Bruce will take Natasha in his arms and Wanda will presses kisses to her hairline and they take her home to look after her, and remind her that she is loved.

Wanda, so used to being part of a pair, is rarely left alone when she’s upset. They’ll smuggle her out of the Tower and take her to art museums, or aquaramines, or the park, to a cute coffee shop hidden in the middle of nowhere, or a bistro that Tony recommended because he knows it’s quiet. They take her out of the house, out of the Tower, and show her the world, show her all the life still out there. They find ways to take her mind away from the dark corners of her subconscious and try and fill her mind instead with new, colourful, loving memories.

Sometimes the world wants to make them feel like they don’t belong. But they’re always there for each other to remind each other that they do belong, with each other; and that with each other they shall always be loved and wanted.


	2. Michelle/Peter/Shuri: First Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter knew his two girlfriends meeting was a bad idea.  
> Set post Infinity War but with no spec on IW

Peter hung his head and let the excited chatter fill up the whole room. He knew this was going to be a bad idea but he didn’t realise just how badly he was going to come out of this until the actual day arrived. It wasn’t that he had been putting off letting them meet, it was just a little hard to arrange when one of them of was a genius princess of a hidden country who basically ran the technological side of everything, and the other was super busy between normal high school stuff, running the Decathlon team, and trying to read every book she could get her hands on with whatever free time she seemed to have. In the aftermath of all that had gone down Shuri had immediately wanted to fly over and see him and what Shuri wanted, Shuri got. When MJ found out what was happening she instantly decided she was going to be there to “A) meet the other girl you want to date, and B) so we can totally berate your dumb ass for the shit you just pulled.”

Peter had not been prepared for just how bad they two of them would be together. They agreed on everything without question. MJ was curious about how Shuri found the time to work on her many projects and Shuri wanted to know more about regular American life in an American high school. But worst of all, they traded stories about Peter. Peter did this for me, aww that’s cute. Peter did this dumb thing, followed by peals of laughter. Peter fell over this time, look I have the video to show you. Peter fell asleep studying once, here’s the pictures I took. Peter is an idiot who should have stayed out of the big, big fights, yes, exactly, Peter could have got hurt!

So he just sat there, head in his arms, warily watching the two of them with their heads bent together, looking through pictures and videos and text messages, ready for the next time they remembered his presence and decided to bring him back into the conversation. But he couldn’t help but smile a little at how well they were getting on. Yes, it was probably going to be disastrous for him wanting to do anything ever again, but at least they seemed to like each other. In fact, they were laughing together like they had been friends for years. Peter hadn’t been mentally prepared for his girlfriends to meet, but as Michelle caught his eye and winked at him while Shuri was engrossed in a series of text messages on Michelle’s phone, he couldn’t help but grin back at her. Maybe this hadn’t been in the worst idea he’d ever had. Maybe it wouldn’t turn out to be a bad idea at all.

“What a minute? Peter’s original suit looked like what?!”

On the other hand, maybe this was the _worst_ idea ever.


	3. Steve/T'Challa/Tony: Fathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At some point Peter realised he was acquiring dads.

At some point Peter realised he was collecting fathers.

It all started with Tony Stark. Mr Stark showed up out of the blue one day and then Peter was going to Berlin instead of doing his homework and he had a brand new suit that came with a whole lot of extra features and then he was fighting Captain America in an airport and then he was on the ground and back in a hotel and Happy was yelling at him for fighting then he was back in Queens, hiding from Aunt May and accidentally revealing Spiderman to Ned and bypassing baby protocols and meeting Friday and missing the Decathlon and fighting Liz’s dad and figuring out a balance in the aftermath. Sure, Aunt May had grounded him for a _long_ time, but Mr Stark had also grounded him after the ferry incident they didn’t speak of and now he was back to his usual weird supervising. Aunt May finding out had earned Mr Stark a telling off from Aunt May but he had taken it well. Or, more specifically, he’d taken Peter out for ice cream afterwards “to let your Aunt cool off” and when they got back she had a beautiful new bouquet of flowers and a much nicer approach to the whole Peter-is-a-superhero-now thing. Peter still got grounded for it, but it led to Mr Stark phoning in more often “to check in.” Then Mr Stark actually started coming round to “check up on you, make sure you haven’t blown something up or done something that I might have done.” They went on patrols together occasionally, and sit up on fire escapes and talk about Peter’s schoolwork and his college prospects, and when something did crop up Tony would hang back and let Peter take the lead on it. Peter would turn round afterwards and Tony would lift the visor of his helmet and smile at Peter like he was proud of him and then they’d go get pizza. It wasn’t something Peter ever really felt like he had needed but when he had Tony he suddenly realised just how much he missed having a father. Not that he was ever going to tell Tony that but it made him feel happy and safe knowing that Tony was looking out for him and caring for him and making sure he didn’t do anything too reckless.

One day, long after Berlin, and long after everything that came after, Tony showed up with Captain America. He tried to hide in the car, shades on and not looking entirely comfortable behind the wheel of Tony’s entirely-too-expensive-for-Peter’s-corner-of-Queens car. But Tony had sauntered up to the driver’s side with his usual ease and didn’t even have to gesture or say anything before the window was being rolled down. Peter missed the exchange but when Tony went round to the other side of the car to get in, Cap tipped Peter a nod while Tony yelled across in his usual nonchalant way that he’d “drop by sometime next week.” When he did drop by Cap was there again, just as unexplainable as the first time. But he paid for the hot dogs they had as they sat up on the fire escape and Peter had to admit he was impressed with the athletic ability of someone who was meant to be over a hundred. And the hot dogs had been nice, especially as they got to watch the sun set over the city.

Then it became routine that just as often as Tony would show up by himself, he’d show up with the Captain. Once Cap turned up by himself, all nervous and out of sorts and took Peter for a walk around the park and asked him about his school work and his suit and how everything was going and how Queens were and how often Tony checked in and whether there were any hard feelings from Berlin and everything that come of it. Peter was shocked by this out of character insecurity that he’d never seen from the Captain and replied with nothing more than, “Queens and Brooklyn got to stick together, right?” That was the first time Peter hugged Steve. For some reason the hug felt like love but he didn’t dwell on that too much.

Not until T’Challa dropped by all of a sudden That arrival sent more than just his Spidey-sense reeling. Because there was no reason for the king of Wakanda to be in Queens. He didn’t need to “check in” on Peter or whatever it was that Tony actually called it now. He was meant to rule a country hidden away in the middle of Africa, not coming all the way out to Queens to take Peter out for dinner.

Peter sat at that dinner stealing looks at the adults around him at every occasion he got. They may have some of the most well known faces in the world but they’d chosen a quiet restaurant in the middle of the week so there were no other customers around. It wasn’t awkward, just disconcerting. They all came in and fit into his life so well, even T’Challa who just had a caring, safe presence even though he’d only just come into Peter’s domestic life more recently. But looking up at the three of them in between bites of his food Peter got the feeling that T’Challa was here to stay. He didn’t quite know what had happened, didn’t know what was _happening_ but he knew that somehow he’d acquired two more dads through Tony-dad. He hadn’t ever thought about needing a dad, and somehow he’d ended up with three. Peter looked at them, how natural and comfortable around each other they all seemed, how they kept glancing at Peter to check that he was okay, and that he was okay with them; Peter looked at how domestic and calm the whole situation was and thought that maybe it wasn’t the most conventional way to gain a family but they were his family now and he was theirs and he never wanted to let them go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know I focused more on Peter than the actual ship I this but it felt cuter


	4. Bucky/Sam/Steve: Beards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beard fluff, post IW, no spec

Sam had never had a thing for beards before. It wasn’t something he was really into and he was fine with things being that way.

His boyfriends, on the other hand, like the mature grown ups that they were, took angst the hard way and grew out their beautiful angst beards. Sam handled his shit like a grown up and just went to the gym far too often instead. In his defence, Steve also did that so it wasn’t so bad. At least Sam just picked one crazy grieving habit. Steve had to go and pick two.

When the grieving period was no longer a requirement and they’d all been reunited Sam wondered how long the angst beard was going to stay. He wondered if he should say something about it. But then Bucky had to go and be Bucky about the whole thing.

Bucky, as it turns out, was really into the beard. Like weirdly into the beard. As if his feelings for missing Steve had somehow manifested into Bucky’s love for Steve’s beard. Then Bucky decided he wasn’t shaving either. That’s when Sam had to come to the realisation that he was putting up with the damn beards. For all that they both loved Sam dearly, his relationship with them could not come between the bond forged between Steve and Bucky all those years ago and when the two of them made their minds up about something they were stubborn bastards about it. That was partially a reason that made Sam agree to date them in the first place.

Sam resigned himself to beard burn all over and started writing as many ‘homeless wild thing’ jokes he could get away with. He decided that if his fate was to put up with the beards then he was going to put up as much of a fight as he really had the room to make.

To his surprise, the beard thing wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. It made it easier to go out in public because Steve finally had a semi-decent disguise. It somehow masked the pain in their eyes and made it easier for both of them to laugh. And the beards were _soft._ Damn, was Sam wrong on how bristly he thought the beards would be. Those things were soft and calmed all of them to no end when someone idly stroked through one while they snuggled up on their battered couch in their apartment.

Sam had never really had a thing for beards before. But that was _before_.


	5. Bruce/Pepper/Tony: Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short little piece of fluff

For all that Bruce and Pepper both overworked themselves sometimes, they were nothing compared to Tony. At times it seemed that man would not stop for anything. However, that didn’t mean that nobody was able to make to stop. It wasn’t just anybody that could get him to stop, but Bruce and Pepper were the exceptions.

Sometimes they could be as bad as him and they’d keep Tony company as they stayed up half the night working through reports and data. It was comforting and cosy, and the next best thing to getting him to actually stop when they were all working away together; Tony tinkering away at a new suit modification, Bruce trying to get the science sorted for whatever else Tony was trying to do, and Pepper sitting at the desk in the corner eyes focusing on her laptop screen. Sometimes she would rise to stretch out her muscles and go over to get more coffee and she’d just stop by the coffee machine for a minute and just observe them. Yes, at times they could be stressed over the details of the thing, but on the whole they were so comfortable with each other that they could finish each other’s thoughts.

Bruce caught her staring and smiled at her gently, “You okay, love.”

“Yeah, just going back to work,” she replied, coming over to kiss them both on their cheeks quickly before sitting back down at her desk. Bruce leaned into the kiss but Tony barely seemed to register that it had happened. He’d realise in an hour or two when his mind was less occupied, but for now they had work to get back to.


	6. Bucky/Peggy/Steve: After the War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the war we'll go home, they said.   
> / WWII/ CA: TFA

After the war we’ll go home, they said.

After the war we’ll settle down and be together, they said.

After the war, when this is all over and the next chapter, our chapter, can begin, we’ll make it a happy one, they said.

After the war, it’ll be over and we can start anew. We can take this new and frightening thing we have and we can run with it to the end of the line. We can take it past the end of the line, take it past what we know and we can figure out what lies in the future together. We’ll shape the future together, they said. Our future will be the shape of us together, they said. We can find a place to live and make it a home, we can make it safe and we can fill it with love. We can reside in a tiny flat in Brooklyn and make new memories there. We can live a new life with more love and less poverty and we’ll make a home.

After the war, we’ll start a family. We can be a family together and if that’s all we ever have then at least we have each and that will be enough. After the war we’ll think of what family means. We’ll think of what family could mean to us. We’ll discuss if three is family enough or if there’s room to grow. We’ll talk about family, they said. In the future when it is safe to discuss all of those things without the shadow of war hanging over the talk of an uncertain and improbable future, we’ll talk about it.

After the war, no matter what happens, we’ll still be together. After the war we’ll stick together and it’ll be the three of us then as it is the three of us now. After the war I’m not going anywhere, they promised each other. I promised you, they said. I’m in it for now and I shall still be in it then. I’m in this for you and for you and you make me want to run with this thing and see where it takes us, they said. I want to be with you, I want to be us, they said. After the war a great many things may change but that will not be one of them. I shall love you then as I love you now, if not more. After the war we can be together. After the war we will be together.

After the war, they said. After the war.

There was no after the war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be sorry, but I'm not. Have the pain

**Author's Note:**

> Should we place bets on whether or not I can finish this on time? 
> 
> I am taking prompts for both ships and ideas so leave a comment or hit me up on tumblr @cas-impala-pie if there's something in particular you want to see


End file.
